


Cherry blossoms and white musk.

by Dadchitaughtmehowtofly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, I'm Bad At Tagging, Imprinting, KuroDai Weekend 2017, M/M, Magic, Not Really Character Death, Tengou!Daichi, exorcist!Kuroo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 03:07:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11911932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dadchitaughtmehowtofly/pseuds/Dadchitaughtmehowtofly
Summary: Written for Kurodai Weekend: - Spirits: Yokai and Exorcist AUHe remembered cold and then a sudden warmth.He remembered the first smell he felt: cherry blossoms and white musk.He remembered fear, noise and... and a painful light.The world came to him as the scariest among the monsters.In the chaos of his awakening someone stretched their hand out for him, to take him from the darkness.





	Cherry blossoms and white musk.

"Go, don't ever come back if you want to live. It's not safe here for beings like you."

Daichi had only a handful of memories before this sentence.  
In his head he's never had a house, nor parents or brothers.  
He had nothing but a few things, some of which he didn't even remember where or when he got but he cherished them like the most precious of treasures.

He remembered cold and then a sudden warmth.  
He remembered the first smell he felt: cherry blossoms and white musk.  
He remembered fear, noise and... and a painful light.  
The world came to him as the scariest among the monsters.  
In the chaos of his awakening someone stretched their hand out for him, to take him from the darkness.

She was beautiful, of that calm beauty which was kind and peaceful.  
She was ethereal and he loved her, her warm green eyes, her soft chin, the mess of hair she had: he loved her, even if he never had the chance to know her as he would have liked to.

 

When he woke up on that day, all of his senses were sharper than usual and he could hear the softest of the noises and get scared for its loudness, he couldn't see because the light was too bright, he couldn't breathe without feeling the air burn his throat and lungs.  
He needed someone to tell him everything was okay, an anchor in the raging sea of his pain, and he was alone.  
Then she came and embraced him and talked softly to him until the panic, the confusion and the sorrow were completely gone.  
She talked about herself, about her family and other things that Daichi didn't remember; there was one only thing he was sure of: her name, Rika.  
She saved him by giving him what he needed the most: the sound of another breath, the warmth of the certainty of not being alone.  
But then she rejected him, she sent him away because she knew what he was.

So he ran away, away from her who was the only thing he knew.  
Away from that house he was born into.

He was alone, again, and there were too many things he didn't know, too many he was still scared of, but he had to live.  
He only knew he had this irrational pull to live and to do so he had to hide in the darkness and learn to talk, to use his powers and to change his form.  
For weeks he walked in the narrow streets, in the shadows, searching for someone like him who could teach him and tell him who he was.

"Yo, little boy!"  
Daichi turned, startled by a voice coming from behind him.  
It’s been days since the last time he's been talked to by someone, he had a desperate look in his eyes and wanted nothing more than that man to speak with him.  
"I'm talking with you, little crow."  
Daichi stared at him with big, surprised eyes and the short man smiled softly at him "Hi, i'm Takeda," Said the man unfolding his own black wings "and who are you?"

Takeda took Daichi with him and his friend, Keishin; they were tengous just like he was.  
In their house they had two other little youkai: Koushi and Azumane, who both soon became his best friends, his brothers.  
Suga was a ray of sunshine, always so bright, smart and kind despite his biting wit.  
On the other hand Asahi was a huge and kind hearted giant, but he was mostly a scaredy cat and Suga used to make fun of him naming him c-raven.

In the time he passed living with Takeda and Keishin, Daichi learned a lot of things, among the others he learned to use his mana and how to turn in his various forms.  
He had three forms: a human form, a raven form or his real form, the one of a human with large black wings and eyes completely black and the last one could be seen only by other youkai or by exorcists, empaths or people linked to the spirit world. 

He could live as he pleased, even as a human or as a raven, but exorcists are often able to recognize them thanks to their own mana, so they had to hide.  
It was during those days he discovered that Rika's family was a minor exorcist house and it would not have been a problem if only she hadn't married Hideo Kuroo, only son and now head of Kuroo's family and powerful household of exorcists.  
That was why she sent him away.

One day Daichi started having strange dreams, they looked like fragments, hidden memories from a life he didn't remember, and the only thing he was able to recognize about them was Rika's house.  
He thought that it couldn't be a case and decided to go back to her to ask.  
Suga was the only one knowing about his dreams and his plan and he tried to convince him not to go,but Daichi had made up his mind and one day he just left home early in the morning.  
He needed answers and he knew that Rika could have helped.

Sure, Kuroo household was scary, but the dreams were multiplicating and he just didn't know what else to do.  
So he turned into his crow form and flew to the house.  
It was a sunny day, the sky was clean, the spring was warming up the cold autumn days and painting in a light shade of pink the cherry tree which was in Rika's house backyard.  
Daichi stopped on one of its branches and looked down where she was walking, holding something in her arms.  
She was even more beautiful than he remembered with that tender smile on her face, the pinky cheeks and the long unruly hair around the slender body.

He checked for anyone to be around and flew out of the branch and beside her where he turned in his human form.  
She flinched and stared at him with wide eyes but she wasn't scared, nor surprised, only... glad and Daichi knew it the moment she hugged him with her free arm and he froze on his place.  
"I thought you were dead or something, i'm so glad you're still alive." She said with the voice muffled by his shirt "what are you doing here?" She asked then.  
"I've been having strange dreams. I'm looking for answers."  
He should not have been attached to her, but her hug... it felt good.  
She retreated and fixed the sheets covering whatever she was holding, in that moment Daichi had the chance to see the thing and suddenly felt something clicking inside of him.  
A baby.  
A beautiful, sleeping baby with few messy dark hair on his head, soft and pale skin and fragile and gentle features.  
Daichi was amazed and couldn't stop staring at that little, sweet thing gently wrapped in Rika's embrace.  
"He's Tetsurou, he's beautiful, isn't he?" she asked and he couldn't do anything other than nod uncoordinatedly.  
Yes, he was.

"Anyway, you're searching for answers I cannot give you, I can only tell you what I know." she began sitting on the backyard floor while Daichi did the same.  
Her long white yukata was laying on the ground.  
The wind was faint but refreshing.  
"Some month ago I found a little crow laying in the grass, right there, under that cherry tree. I took him and I tried to heal him, but despite all my best efforts, it seemed to be doomed. I thought I should have alleviated his pain, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, so I just kept him warm beside me. Then, one morning I woke up and I found... you." she fixated her eyes in his and Daichi felt a shiver pass through his back.  
He thought that maybe that was the cause of his attachment to her.  
"I don't know what made a spirit out of you, but you were there, in a child form, with beautiful black wings and big big brown eyes and suddenly it didn't matter that you were a youkai, I only saw a child, a scared child, so I helped you out of here before they could find you and..." she turned her face so to not have to look at his face "Kill me? I know who you are Rika, when I decided to come back here I accepted the risks."

"You do?" she asked, suddenly sad.  
"You're accepting the risks staying here with me, aren't you?"  
She smiled softly at him "I trust you, Daichi."  
"How do you know my name? I've never told you."  
"I named you like this. You were still a crow when I called you that, I didn't think you could remember."  
"Yes, I have some... fragments." he said standing up: someone was coming back home and he had to go: "Thank you for having all this explained to me. And... you saved me... twice: I owe you more than you can think, so please, if you need anything, call my name and i'll be with you in a minute." he took in a last sight of Tetsurou before flying away from home, again.

"Goodbye, Daichi." she said when he was flying. 

\---

After that day he came back to the house from time to time, once he even brought Suga with him; though he never turned in human form, because it was too dangerous.  
He didn't exactly know why he had to risk his life to go there, but he just couldn't keep himself from going, it was much stronger than his own will.  
It was like a strange, strong force attracted him there and there was no way to resist it.  
He watched Tetsurou grow fast and stronger day by day.  
He was there for his first steps and for the first words.

Then one day, around a year after his meeting with Rika, he heard her call.  
It was a rainy day and he was home, under his sheets and suddenly he heard her voice calling his name.  
She was clearly in pain and that had him immediately get up and apparated in a moment.  
When he reappeared he felt the raindrops touch his skin like cold but gentle fingertips and a terrible smell of burned flesh had him nauseous in an instant.  
The sky was red, like the blood all around him and the flames were high and hot.  
"D-Daichi!" he heard a low and flebile voice calling him from the ground, where Rika was laying in a blood pit.  
"Rika!" he screamed and ran beside her even before he could check the light shield all around her and he stomped on it.  
He crashed his fists against it in vain: it was too strong.  
"Daichi, listen to me." she said staying where she was "I didn't call you so that you could save me, I won't come back home, and neither Hideo, we have to go all out and for us it means we will use our life force." she explained.  
Daichi couldn't recognize if what was on his cheeks was rain or tears, it didn't matter anymore, because in that chaos he was losing his savior, the person he was life bounded with.  
"Daichi please, don't cry, i'm promising you one thing: i'll always be with you, with the love I gave to you the day I took you with me. But you also have to promise me one thing: to protect Tetsurou." she was trying to hide her pain, but it was increasingly more evident in her voice, even with the soft smile she had. "I know you two imprinted, i've seen it a year ago and I know that you've been coming back for him. Now I want you to know that i'm okay with it, as long as you take care of him when he'll be alone. Promise me." She stretched her arms and touched his right ankle "Yes, it's an oath, i'm going to protect him and one day, maybe, i'll be able to tell him the few things I know about you."  
She smiled one more time and despite her hair covered in dust, blood and rain, her bruised cheek and that kind smile she's always been able to put on, she was as beautiful as ever.  
"Thank you." she said and then, in the blink of an eye he was not on that battlefield anymore, but away, safe in Rika's backyard.  
He had all of his feelings thrown here and there, in a dark mess.  
He couldn't understand how a person he barely knew could make this mess out of him, but it had alway felt like this with Rika, she's always been way more than an acquaintance, it was like she was part of him.  
And now that part was missing.  
Daichi felt lost, again, just like when he was left hiding in the shadowy narrow streets, a unpleasing feeling hit his body and left him breathless as he felt a wave of pain and sorrow followed right away by screams.  
A child's screams, Tetsurou's cry.

Daichi ran to him, asking himself if it was possible that he felt his parents leave this world to another.  
If he felt alone, just like Daichi did.  
So he took him from his little wooden bed and lulled him, watching him in the eyes for the first time in months and he was surprised not to see the grey eyes of a baby anymore, but a pair of hazel very cat-style, yellowish eyes, and while admiring them, he was trying to comfort the uncomfortable and enlighten the graving loneliness they both felt, with the warmth of an embrace.

\--

Daichi's routine didn't change that much: his days in fact were divided between his tengou cave (as he, Asahi and Suga came to call it) and Kuroo's house.  
Tetsurou was left with his grans and Daichi thought it was good for him to have someone, so he decided to keep the distance and watch him, at least for now, from his usual cherry tree branch.  
Then though, as he kept coming back to him he understood something was wrong as Tetsurou kept crying and screaming at the point his grans didn't know what to do.  
So one day, as soon as anyone wasn't around anymore, he left the branch, turned human and took him, holding him in his arms and lulling him.  
He didn't know why, but he was able to make him calm down and suddenly it came to his mind what Rika said before dying "I know you two imprinted...", "imprinted".  
Was it possible for a tengou to imprint?  
Was it why he kept coming back at Rika's house?  
Did Tetsurou feel the same?

He didn't know, but in the end, when he was holding the child in his arms, the world felt right, like everything was in its place, and it was good.  
Very good.

\--

Early enough Daichi had to stop lulling Tetsurou, because the child was becoming bigger and bigger everyday, and Daichi had still a teen human form after all.  
There was also the fact that he didn't think a baby could keep a secret and Tetsurou was clearly near that age in which he would have been be able to remember their meetings and ask questions or say things to his conservative grans.  
'Conservative' was an understatement.

But all these motives were nearly nullified everytime he heard Tetsu's crying at night.  
He knew he had to hold back, but he felt his loneliness in his own heart and it was heartbreaking.  
And honestly after some time he started to miss Tetsu's warmth on his chest.

\--

 

The time went by.  
Daichi proved on his own skin how spirits grew quicker than humans did and, looking almost twenty, he asked himself when his own growing would have come to an end.

Meanwhile he kept on spending his nights watching after Tetsu and, sitting on his branch, he observed him moving his first steps into the world and society.  
And it turned out he was the cunning kind of guy: smart, quick and cheering.  
When he started going to school he immediately conquered everyone's sympathy: he reserved a big smile for everyone and had this kind attitude which reminded Daichi of his mother.  
He couldn't wait for the time when he would have been able to talk to him about her with new unheard words.

The Kuroos were rich and well known, but they were also a cold family: there were no hugs, no kind words or good memories about something not exorcist's job-related.  
Tetsu knew only job stories about his mother and father, nothing more and for Daichi this fact was a bit sad.  
Even he had a family and the last things he would have told about Asahi, Suga or Takeda and Keishin were spirit-related.  
He would surely talked about Suga’s smile and Asahi’s big heart, he would have gladly talked about the sweet, not-so-secret love Takeda and Keishin felt one for the other and how their relationship evolved in their living together as a family.  
But the last things he would have talked about were the special powers everyone had: like the strange silver wings of Suga or the beautiful soul-mark Asahi had on his strong hands.  
They would have only been details in the bigger bigger picture of the life they were sharing.

So he kept watching, silently, sitting on a shadowy corner of Tetsu's life, admiring as he was getting everyday more beautiful, smart and skilled with mana and waited.  
Waited for him to be an adult.  
Waited for Tetsu to be ready.

**

Daichi was watching everything from the shadows, as always, but the dark huge room they were in, was a new thing.  
Tetsurou was fighting and he was good: as expected he was strong, quick and very smart and his mana was powerful.  
The only thing amiss was a bit of humility.  
Daichi had seen it coming, Tetsu's cockiness: it was a hard, high wall on his mind which kept him from thinking that something could go wrong and Daichi always thought that confidence is a good thing, until it is not anymore.  
Daichi couldn't intervene on the way as Tetsu became always more confident, but then maybe he should have.  
He honestly didn't know: he liked him, but at the same time he started to hate that cocky side of him.  
He even started to hate the word 'cocky' for what was good.

Yeah, he was a fine young man and he would have made a really good exorcist, but maybe he should have had to be a bit scared, or at least have that useful kind of fear that keeps you from going unprepared on the battlefield, just like he was doing at the moment and kept doing since his sixteenth year.

There was the tradition between the ancient households of exorcists, that the young heir to the family name would have obtained his exorcist pass (as Daichi came to call it) only at his eighteenth birthday, after a rite of passage in which they had to show their exorcist skills.  
Tetsurou started to work two years earlier and no one knew it (except for Daichi who had to follow him and protect him while hiding, thing that was getting harder and harder).

And now, right in his rite of passage, Tetsurou was losing because of his fucking confident self.  
Daichi always let him do everything he wanted to do without intervening (unless it was strictly necessary), but this time he had to go in action and save him, because there was no way he could have been able to survive with so many demons all around him.  
Although he was at the center of the action, punching, kicking and throwing balls of energy tirelessly.  
Daichi was impressed by his stamina, but he took a look around him and all those demons were definitely too much for only one man, as good as he could be; so he just started to fight the new ones.

It was difficult, and tiring, Daichi was not used to fight, the only thing he could do was use his mana at his best, but it seemed to be enough as the demons came down.  
At the end Daichi was still in the darkness, the demons were all gone and Tetsu was panting at the center of the big room.

There was a strong smell of blood mixed with dust and magic.  
He was tired, but at the same time he could feel his senses trill.  
It was a matter of moments and Daichi saw a big black shadow run to Tetsu, he thought to send a barrier, but he was too tired for that kind of magic, so he just apparated in front of him a second before he could hit the boy.

His chest was burning and he could taste the blood in his mouth.  
He thought that at least he could have left his human form before going in mission with Tetsu, but no, after all he wanted to talk to him right after the rite.  
And then that happend.  
Maybe he should have doubted of Kuroo's skills too, but it never came to his mind the possibility of him failing this proof.

Daichi brought an hand on the demon's head and performed the exorcism as teachers taught Tetsu: he was there when they did it, he learned lots of things sitting on that branch.

Thinking about it now, maybe he's been sitting on that branch for too long, maybe he should have stayed at home with Suga and Asahi, maybe he should have shown more gratitude to Keishin and Takeda who took him with them and taught him how to live when no one else did.  
Maybe he should have looked in Tetsu's eyes before like he was in that moment, lying on the ground and losing himself in them.  
There was something about his eyes, they were so..special.  
Of the yellowish kind of special.

"I knew you were real." said Tetsu's and only then Daichi understood that his head was on Tetsu's lap.  
"So alike and so different." he whispered passing his left hand through Tetsu's messy hair and thinking about Rika.  
"You saved me." there was surprise in Tetsu’s voice "I was coming to think you were my fantasy, but if it was true there was no way i could always feel your presence. Why? Why did you save me?"  
Daichi smiled and moved his head "I made an oath to you mother that i'd have protect you."  
A tear fell from one of his hazel irises, and Daichi felt as if he was drowning.

"All these years you have always been beside me, you have always protected me, even from my own stupidity." he said incredulous and Daichi emitted a slow chuckle "Not exactly beside you, but yeah, i've always protect your cocky ass."  
Tetsu laughed too "I remembered of a boy who used to hold me as a baby and i thought it was a dream, but it was you, wasn't it? And all those accidents with my grans or the bullies in the school...".  
Daichi nodded weakly as he was feeling his forces leave him so he turned for one last time in his true form.  
"You're a tengou." Tetsu said astonished "but why is the wound not healing?" he was panicking so Daichi took his hand and put it on his chest where the blood was slowly spilling the life out of him.

"It was a demon blade." 

A sentence. Five words. Yeah maybe he would have liked to do something else before leaving this world, but he was glad he was at least able to save the boy he was imprinted with who smelled of cherry blossoms and white musk.

And with that thought the world rolled away and the darkness swallowed everything.  
He was floating in nothingness.  
It was cold and he felt sticky and humid.  
He was sure that somehow he ended up here once before and just like then it was awful.  
Time was ticking always slower.  
Was there even time in that darkness or did the shadows swallow it too?  
"Ehy you" he heard a voice followed by a weak eco.  
He knew that voice, but he was not able to name it.  
It was peaceful and smooth just like velvet.  
"You, stay with me." the sound was dilating, the words were foggier and a far light was moving closer to him at an insane speed, warmth permeated him.

"Are you in here?"  
Hands on his cheeks, a light pressure on his right hip and on his back a strange sound on his ears.  
What was that?  
It sounded like a drum with a still rythm and soft sound.

"Ehi!" that voice again.  
He tried to open his eyes, but the light was blinding, so he decided to open them by grades.  
"Take it slow." said the voice, once made sure he was alive, "I... could have made the things a bit more complicated, but I owed you and..."  
"You didn't think, as always." it didn't take long for Daichi to recognize the voice, but it took longer to be able to use his own voice again. "What did you do, and for how much have I been out?" continued.  
"You've been out for half an hour and I made... a spell?" there was something off in his voice and that made Daichi even more worried "Spill it."  
"It's something i found on a forbidden book, it is used to tie two lives together and i kind of divided our hearts? I honestly dunno how to explain."  
"It will go." probably if he'd had enough force he would have slammed a hand on his forehead, but he couldn't so he focused on his eyes which were still fighting to open.  
"The thing is..." Tetsu kept talking or at least he tried since Daichi stopped him again: "Ah great! There's also a 'thing'."  
"Lemme speak before you open your eyes." Tetsu snapped "So, the thing is that this spell was meant for two humans so-"  
"Please don't tell me that you're a-" Daichi was reaching a new point of despair as this conversation kept going.  
"Tengou, yeah, but only for a half." Tetsu confirmed and Daichi couldn't not think about Kuroo's household reaction to the news of their heir being a half-tengou "So i am... half a human?" he asked then.  
Tetsu took Daichi's hand and put it on what felt like his hair "Kind of."  
"So now you're half a crow?" asked again.  
Silence fell between the two of them and Dachi heard a strange noise coming from his right side which sounded a lot like a purr.

"Who ever said 'crow'?"

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first story on ao3 (and the second one I've written in eng) I hope you liked it.  
> Please leave me some tips as i'm still fighting with eng and i've got to and i want to get better.


End file.
